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Overview

Here is how I fell into the most mind-boggling story in my career. When I was 63, I cut my practice to half-time and began researching. I had been studying bio-identical hormone therapy for years and was always dumbfounded by contradictory information by supposedly reputable sources. For example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) put a “black box warning” on testosterone (updated as recently as 2016), saying heart attack and stroke were significant problems. And they limited on-label use to patients with testicular damage due to heredity or chemotherapy. But respected sources have debunked the misinformation. An international consensus conference said testosterone improves health, and others say it improves heart function and risks. Something was wrong[1].I spent months reading every spare moment. As I went on, I was devastated by the bigger picture. I previously thought US healthcare was acceptable, if expensive. I believed the FDA had integrity, the various other players were principled, and the medical literature reliable. But after more than 30 books and hundreds of articles, I realized I was deluded. ‘Medical science' had been degraded beyond recognition.My beliefs shifted under me. I had spent my life promoting many treatments which I now knew were ineffective or harmful. Much of my knowledge, arduously acquired during my career, was torn off like a hand amputated by a farm machine. I had believed medical “truths” like a religion, and God was dead. And everywhere I looked, I saw unscrupulous activity among our doctors, hospitals, journals, and supporting providers.As my insight grew, I discovered patient after patient who was broken on the torture-wheel of our therapies, their lives ruined by toxic drugs or surgery. I saw men with back pain which likely would have been self-limited turned into struggling opioid addicts by our promiscuous prescribing culture. Some had surgery supported by no more science than a bar stabbing. I saw people taking ten or more prescriptions. I saw depression and intellectual decline with statin and beta blocker combinations. I saw irreversible brain damage from psychiatric drugs. I saw a lot more.As I learned, I felt obliged to share my discoveries, so I began to write. I will take you through my journey step by step. I use quotes, links, and explanatory footnotes liberally to make authentication easy. As you start to grasp the tragedy, you will realize why I cannot sugar-coat or use euphemisms.I showed this to many people, but only journalists and lawyers were unsurprised. My friend Lynne Bateson, a top writer for major London newspapers, told me she is always suspicious because people tell her lies every day. Journalists, if they do their job, question everything. And attorneys see people at their worst. But nearly everyone else, particularly physicians, became angry and argued with me.Your reaction may be the same as mine. I did not believe it at first. I could not accept that so many useless, even damaging therapies were created just for profit. I could not think that the bulk of medical studies had been twisted into advertising. How was it possible that money overcame so many decent, well-trained people? It is an agonizing spectacle. In the doctors’ defense—their only defense—they did not, and still do not, understand the calamity.Physicians all start with high hopes and ideals. Much of that is now lost. In memory of this, and in hopes medicine can be reformed, I will tell the story.

￼[1] If you have a specific interest in hormones, see my first book. The summary is: hormone therapy works but seems to have been suppressed by the pharmaceutical companies who do not profit on the ‘bio-identical’ drugs which are the same as human body components and which cannot be patented.